1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power saving measures within a mobile telephone, and more particularly, to power saving measures responsive to a location of a mobile telephone.
2. Description of Related Art
Over the past several years, the convenience and popularity of mobile telephones have caused a drastic increase in their use. Mobile telephones enable a user to maintain communications when they are away from locations where they may be easily contacted by existing land line telephones. Mobile telephones enable an individual to be easily contacted when they are out shopping, driving in the car, or at other locations where land line communications are not possible.
One of the greatest limitations with mobile telephones is their ability to provide a continuous power source for extended periods of time. This has lead to the practice of mobile telephone users turning off their mobile phone when they arrive at their home or office to conserve battery power because existing land line telephones may be used at these locations. While the process of turning on and off the cellular telephone is effective in conserving battery power, many users will forget to turn on their mobile telephones when they leave their home or office causing them to potentially miss important calls from family, friends and business associates.
One solution to this problem has been creating a standby state for a mobile telephone when the telephone is turned on but not handling a call. When in the standby state, the mobile telephone typically operates in a power saving condition which periodically checks the control channel for incoming calls. The remainder of the time, the mobile telephone powers down most of its circuitry to conserve battery power. This technique extends the standby time of the mobile telephone considerably over a situation when the mobile telephone is merely turned on. Examples of prior art type power saving devices of this type are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,513 to Croft, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,329 issued to Croft, et al.
A shortcoming of the standby mode power savings method is that battery power is still depleted quickly enough that a user may feel the need to turn off the mobile telephone when entering an environment where a different telephone will be used. Since it is easy for the user to forget to turn the phone back on again, the same problem of potentially missing an important call may arise. Thus, some means for further conserving battery power over existing standby mode operating conditions is desired.